Preschool Musical...

Wednesday was my sweet girl's first day at Montessori Preschool. She was beyond excited, and I was a hot mess. She woke up with this look on her face:
I asked her what she wanted for breakfast, and she said "pancakes with snow on top." Snow= powdered sugar. Not necessarily the healthiest of options, but it was her first day, and I'm not trying to change the look on that face on the first day. :) She ate, brushed her teeth, and then we got her looking all kinds of spiffy in her "first day of Montessori" outfit. Cardigan courtesy of Nana and Pop. Diva.Her reaction to arriving at said school. Cheesy grins for all.This interaction would be the last one of the morning until pick up time. She found her coat hook in the hallway. #18... sounds like a champion to me. ;)We were through the door, and she was off like a bolt. Seriously. She wandered around the room looking at everything... everything except Emma Grace, Bryan, and me. Left in the dust. She wandered up to people and said "Hi, I'm Reese!" I turn around to say good bye to her, and she was already in line to go outside... didn't even look back. I, however, cried like a baby. Another mother consoled me, her teacher said things would be great, and I cried like a baby. It took me crying all the way home to realize how absolutely proud of her I was. She faced it like no other. Big bad Reese.

Emma Grace and I played, baked Reese cookies and made her a card, read books, and played some more. It was really really nice. Then we were off a few hours later to pick up our best girl.

This is how I was greeted. She was PISSED. The last thing she wanted to do was leave. It was tantrum city getting her to put her coat on, get in the car, and get home. In fact... the entire way home she screamed at me and told me to "turn the car right around and take me baaaaaaaaack!" Pleasant. I couldn't get anything out of her about her day. EG went down for nap, Reese calmed down and had lunch, and I eventually got her to tell me that she wanted to go back... "please please pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease!" I was under the assumption that she really enjoyed herself at school. :)

In hopes of leaving preschool with a happy Reese from then on out, we put together a calendar for her. We started getting these "Highlights" magazines (not sure why... Grandma was it you???), while some of the things in there are over Reese's head right now, they'll be great for when she's a little older. Along with the first installment came a calendar... AWESOME. I went through her school calendar, and she put a Dr. Seuss sticker on each day she had school. She LOVED the activity and was able to see that she was going back to school quite often. We also talked about how it wasn't polite and friendly to scream and cry and disrupt our friends. When I picked her up from school Friday... She was nothing but cheeseburger smiles. :) And now she checks her calendar in the morning to see if she gets to go to preschool or not.

Since we're on the subject of Reese, I'll give you a little update on what Sybil... I mean Reese... is like at the age of 3 years 3 months. She is crazylooneytunescompletelyoffherrocker. And I mean that in the most loving way possible. :)She has moodswings like no other. One minute we are sweet little Reese singing to the birds and frolicking in the forest, and the next she's guano crazy... screaming and crying. She's started giving Bryan shenanigans at bedtime again. This in turn has pushed us to taking her beloved "stuff" (as she calls everything she owns), away from her until the following day. She has to earn her things back by being sweet, friendly to her sister, and all around normal. It seems to be working. Night before last she had her doll house repossessed. Last night she was an angel when it was time to go to bed. Today... she'll get her dollhouse back. She also had her entire wardrobe of princess dresses put on hiatus. I'm predicting a stellar day today. :)

I've also been working on not getting super upset with her. I'm an emotional person... and now she's an emotional person. She would act so ridiculously, I would get beyond upset, which in turn made her beyond upset, which in turn made timeout beyond ridiculous. I've really really really been working on my self control, and it makes the "shoot me in my face now please" 3's much more tolerable. She gets out of control, I try to maintain control by talking to her quietly in timeout, this forces her to lower her voice and emotions, which in turn allows us to get over the shenanigans MUCH quicker than we had been. Timeout is still the place where we discuss said shenanigans, but she would literally scream, cry, and make the most god awfully annoying sounds for well over her 3 minutes allotment, and it just got to be too much. Super fantastic things about my Reese. She's incredibly smart. She knows all of her letter sounds and is working on forming letters... that's the biggest thing by far. Now that she's in Montessori, she comes home with these random things to say. When she's feeling sad, she tells me she's turning "blue." OY. Friday she started telling me about butterflies... no clue what she said, but it was so cute. I can't wait to hear more of what she's doing. So far I know she knocked down some blocks and played with Ella in the sandbox. :)

She's VERY helpful. Reese loves to do anything we're doing... especially baking. She doesn't even really enjoy eating the product, but buddy, she loves mixing the ingredients and licking any type of batter. She's getting much better at helping to clean up her messes. At Montessori, they are responsible for their own messes and must clean up after themselves before moving on to the next activity. We're not quite there yet but can't wait 'til we are. :) If there is something Emma Grace needs, she's on top of it. Very sweet to see.

Reese loves to play, run around, and dress up... in case you couldn't tell. :) When she wears these different outfits, she takes on these little personalities that just crack me up. The other day she dressed as Cinderella and got this sheepish little bat my eyes look on her face, and then asked me if she was perfect. Say huh? :) Being a great mix of pretty pretty princess and I wanna be a boy... she often plays cars, roars like a dinosaur, or wears a fire hat while prancing around in the biggest poofiest dress she can get her hands on .Reese, I love you beyond oodles... even though sometimes I'd like to have you committed. :)